Note on the age and fauna of the Lynton Beds (Lower Devonian) of north Devon

The Lynton Beds represent shallow marine sediments with a restricted fauna dominated by brachiopods. The age indicated by the brachiopod fauna is late Emsian, although the possibility of a younger date for the uppermost horizons cannot be discounted.     

Faunas from the upper silurian (upper ludlovian) in the ludlow-much wenlock district,England

Faunal lists for 17 sections in the Overton Formation are presented. Faunal diversity appears to increase towards the formations base while faunal dominance appears to increase towards its top.     

Woolshed Creek fossil site: a key part of Canberra’s scientific and cultural heritage

The Woolshed Creek fossil site near the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Canberra, contains brachiopods Atrypa duntroonensis (early Homerian, early Silurian, ca 430.5?Ma) within a mudstone of the Canberra Formation. Their discovery in 1844 by the Reverend William B. Clarke (“the Father of Australian Geology”), and subsequent comparison with other fossil collections from around the world, contributed significantly to the nineteenth century debate about the oldest rocks in Australia. The fossil site is now on the ACT Government Heritage List and recent site improvements make it readily accessible via a pathway from the sports grounds of the Royal Military College.     

西藏申扎和改则地区早石炭世地层及腕足类研究

西藏申扎和改则地区早石炭世地层发育,腕足类及珊瑚类化石丰富。腕足类化石计有34属45种,共建立3个组合;申扎大塘阶下部巴日阿郎寨组Ovatia-Unispirifer组合;大塘阶上部永珠组Balakhonia-Productus组合;改则大塘阶上部Latiproductus-Striatifera组合。本文系统讨论了各腕足类组合的时代及与国内外同期地层的对比,将西藏境内早石炭世的沉积物及生物群划分为3个类型。根据生物群及沉积物在空间上的分布特点,笔者认为在早石炭世时,班公湖至怒江断裂南北生物群及沉积物具有明显的差异,即南部申扎和珠峰地区生物群及沉积物特征与冈瓦纳大陆相似,而北部改则地区与扬子地台的生物群及沉积物特征相同,其间可能有宽阔的海域隔离。     

Behavior of lophophorates during the end-Permian mass extinction and recovery

The end-Permian mass extinction devastated most marine communities and the recovery was a protracted event lasting several million years into the Early Triassic. Environmental and biological processes undoubtedly controlled patterns of recovery for marine invertebrates in the aftermath of the extinction, but are often difficult to single-out. The global diversity and distribution of marine lophophorates during the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction indicates that stenolaemate bryozoans, rhynchonelliform brachiopods, and lingulid brachiopods displayed distinct recovery patterns.Bryozoans were the most susceptible of the lophophorates, experiencing relatively high rates of extinction at the end of the Permian, and becoming restricted to the Boreal region during the Early Triassic. The recovery of bryozoans was also delayed until the Late Triassic and characterized by very low diversity and abundance. Following the final disappearance of Permian rhynchonelliform brachiopod survivors, Early Triassic rhynchonelliform brachiopod abundance remained suppressed despite a successful re-diversification and a global distribution, suggesting a decoupling between global taxonomic and ecological processes likely driven by lingering environmental stress.In contrast with bryozoans and rhynchonelliforms, lingulid brachiopods rebounded rapidly, colonizing shallow marine settings left vacant by the extinction. Lingulid dominance, characterized by low diversity but high numerical abundance, was short-lived and they were once again displaced back into marginal settings as environmental stress changed through the marine recovery. The presence in lingulid brachiopods of the respiratory pigment hemerythrin, known to increase the efficacy of oxygen storage and transport, when coupled with other morphological and physiological adaptations, may have given lingulids a survival advantage in environmentally stressed Early Triassic settings.     

Early Cambrian radiation of brachiopods: A perspective from South China

Brachiopods, a group of benthic suspension-feeding marine invertebrates, made their first appearance in the Lower Cambrian. In the Yangtze Platform (South China), well-exposed Lower Cambrian stratigraphic succession represents shallow to deeper water environments. Strata from eastern Yunnan, southern Shaanxi and the Yangtze gorges areas of western Hubei Province, deposited in muddy-siltstone and carbonate lithofacies, contained an abundant variety of brachiopods, including all the representatives of the subphylum Linguliformea and the calcareous-shelled genera of Kutorgina and Nisusia from the subphylum Rhynchonelliformea. Thus the fossil assemblage bears witness to the first major phase of evolutionary radiation of brachiopods during the ‘Cambrian explosion’ interval of metazoans. Brachiopods from the celebrated Chengjiang fauna have exquisitely preserved soft-tissues, which reveal the body plans and evolutionary acquisition of morphological novelties of the early stocks, and also provide a good opportunity for testing the analogies with the stem groups from the extant representatives. These fossils have corroborated the view that brachiopods developed complex organization of tissues, and achieved considerable evolutionary success already by the onset of ‘Cambrian Explosion’. Thus it is not improbable that a large part of this radiation occurred within, or only just before early Cambrian time. Studies of Chengjiang brachiopods suggest that attachment by a pedicle to the substrate was probably the most common relationship of Cambrian brachiopods with the substrate where they inhabited.     

Brachiopod events in the European Middle Cretaceous (Aptian-Cenomanian)

Brachiopod events in the European Middle Cretaceous (Aptian-Cenomanian). Brachiopod species proliferated in the Late Aptian and Cenomanian. Significant palaeobiogeographical events took place during the Middle Cretaceous, in particular during Early and Late Albian time.     

Sea-level change, carbon cycling and palaeoclimate during the Late Cenomanian of northwest Europe; an integrated palaeoenvironmental analysis

A new high resolution sea-level curve for the Late Cenomanian M. geslinianum Zone has been generated using sequence stratigraphic analysis on transects through the margins of the Anglo-Paris Basin in the UK and Saxony Basin in Germany. Transgressive sediments that bury a rocky shoreline in the Dresden area have proved particularly useful in determining both the absolute amount of sea-level change and the rate of rise. After a brief fall at the base of the M. geslinianum Zone, sea level rose rapidly through the higher part of the zone, resulting in an overall short term eustatic rise of 22–28 m. Biostratigraphy and carbon isotope stratigraphy have enabled detailed correlations to be made between marginal locations and thick, relatively complete, basinal successions. The basinal successions at Eastbourne, UK, and Gröbern, Germany, provide both geochemical proxies for palaeoenvironmental change, including oxygen and carbon isotope records, and an orbital timescale graduated in precession and eccentricity cycles. Integration of the sea-level history with palaeoclimate evolution, palaeoceanography and changes in carbon cycling allows a detailed reconstruction of events during the Late Cenomanian. Orbital forcing on long eccentricity maxima provides the underlying drive for these changes, but amplification by tectonic events and feedback mechanisms augmented the orbital effects and made the Cenomanian/Turonian Boundary Event distinctive. In particular, variations in atmospheric CO₂ caused by oceanic drawdown and a brief period of intense volcanic outgassing resulted respectively in short term cooling and warming events. The magnitude and high rates (up to 1 m/1 kyr) of sea-level rise are diagnostic of glacioeustasy, however improbable this may appear at the height of the Cretaceous greenhouse.     

Early Ordovician brachiopods from south-west Wales

The Early Ordovician brachiopods of south-west Wales (Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire) are identified, in most cases for the first time. That period is termed the local Arenig Stage in Britain, but it is now correlated with the Floian, Dapingian, and earlier half of the Darriwilian, which are more recently established international stages in the system of stratigraphical nomenclature. The rocks in south-west Wales were laid down as turbidites in a backarc basin which formed part of the margin of the relatively small independent microcontinent of Avalonia at that time. However, since the Rheic Ocean between Avalonia and the immense Gondwana continent was relatively narrow in the Arenig, the brachiopods reviewed here can be established to be part of the Mediterranean Province, which was also extensive in the higher-latitude sectors in and around Gondwana in the Early Ordovician. The 17 brachiopod species identified within the Arenig brachiopod faunas of south-west Wales are described, including the new species Aporthophyla prisca, Tritoechia bolohaulensis, Skenidoides pontyfennensis and Paurorthis? llangynogensis.     

Brachiopods from a Lower Palaeozoic mass flow deposit near Llanafan Fawr,Central Wales

Brachiopod-dominated assemblages from the Allt y Clych conglomerate near Llanafan Fawr provide good evidence for a Silurian (Lower Llandovery) age. The conglomerates are interpreted as mass flow deposits and are related to the revised stratigraphy of Davies (1980) by emendation of some of the author's previous interpretations.